What has the TSA really "Done"???
 

My topic speaks for itself.. Since the inception of the TSA after 9-11, what changes have REALLY been made to security going through the airport?

This is just one example of the TSA's "effectiveness"
http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cg...3/BA196150.DTL

Guns still get through. Knives still get through. I'm sure things get through a lot more then is EVER known about..

Story time.. When I was a flight attendant, people would often ask if I am scared to do what I do. I'd simply respond "no". They'd ask what I think of the new security measures taking place to make the skies safer, and I'd try really hard not to laugh while being honest and saying "The new 'securtiy' measures in place after 9-11 do not make flying any safer. All the hype over new securtiy measures is done just so the flying public THINKS it's safer. It is no safer then before 9-11, if not less." I also get asked if I am scared of a terrorist on my plane. I just say that "after 9-11, the flight crew's greatest ally in the sky is not an air marshall, not our training, but the other passangers. People have seen what can be and WAS done on 9-11. They don't want that to happen again, and if someone starts acting really odd or whatnot, the passangers take notice, and a lot of times, action."


I try to understand how people can say to a TV news camera (in response to do you feel safe at the airport etc etc) "I am glad to see all these uniformed people there protecting me and my family." I really try hard not to grab a bag and puke. Let's keep in mind that THOUSANDS of these people who are "protecting" us have NEVER gone through the "mandatory" 10-yr background check. Let's keep in mind that these "protectors" still, to this day, take away a 5-yr-old's 2-inch tall plastic G-I-JOE figure becuase it is holding a "gun" that is no more than 1-2 cm long, if that. Let's keep in mind that these people can now LEGALLY ruin peoples luggage, without a note saying "we had to look in your bag/case/whatever" like they are SUPPOSED to do..

Oh- a little more for you about security in general. When the DTW base opened for Ryan last year, we had to go through security to get to the plane. For the first week or 2.. Then, we were "escorted" (said while laughing) through the back door of the office, the luggage staging area, and onto the tarmac where we walked right up to the planes, with no security escort or anything. ANY ONE OF US could have carried a gun or bomb or ANYTHING onto that plane, and no one would have ever known a **** thing.. The FAA realized this, near the end of the season, and we had to go through security again, but still. It makes you think..

Chris

[This message has been edited by N727NK (edited 06-14-2003).]

Thanks for this intelligent post. I am going to keep it here for the time being. But if the replies turn into a debate about airport security, I'm gonna move it to Travel Safety and Security where it will have a better home.

--richard, moderator

Thanks Richard, please do move it http://www.flyertalk.com/travel/fttr...orum/smile.gif MY bad http://www.flyertalk.com/travel/fttr...orum/smile.gif

CHris

Maybe the TSA are used as.... intimidation figures.... http://www.flyertalk.com/travel/fttr...m/rolleyes.gif

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Hailing from paradise, the 50th state -- the most isolated population -- the largest consumers of SPAM per capita -- home of the southern most point of the USA. Just a few things to be proud of www.gohawaii.com

N727NK,

I don't work in the air-travel industry, but my impressions agree with yours in every way. Thanks for being honest!

Bruce

And all of this is mandated by "your" elected officials.

We, the screeners, have no control of the procedures.

Hence the title of this thread; What has the TSA really "Done"?

It doesn't say what have the screeners really done. Please try to keep the two apart.

Great post. I think virtually every frequent flier I've ever known or met feels the same way.

Hey, it's our tax dollars hard at work, or hardly at work, right?

My guess is that you were one of "those" who thought that they were above everyone else and should have had "special rights" but got "right sized".

This is what you got for your tax dollars. Feeling safer yet??

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"They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety
deserve neither liberty nor safety." -- Ben Franklin

tsadude, I don't think I am better than anyone.. I am accusing YOU and the TSA of thinking you are better then everyone else. I personally feel the TSA should be disbanded, as it is a waste of my tax dollars, and I hate having to pay a cent of your wages. It makes me sick.

Chris

Do you know tsadude ? I mean, do you know him/her personally ?

Hope you have LOTS of Pepto handy. Your going to be sick for awhile.

No, TakeScissorsAway, I do not know tsadude personally.. I draw my conclusion from his statement in his above post, which accuses me of thinking I need special favors for some odd reason. I never thought I needed special favors, and I was always willing to set a GOOD example for pax when I beeped for whatever reason. I get searched? Fine. That's the way it is. But I still think that the ThousandsStandingAround needs to be re-vamped or disbanded fast.. As do MANY others.

Chris

"“Story time.. When I was a flight attendant, people would often ask if I am scared to do what I do. I'd simply respond "no". They'd ask what I think of the new security measures taking place to make the skies safer, and I'd try really hard not to laugh while being honest and saying "The new 'securtiy' measures in place after 9-11 do not make flying any safer. All the hype over new securtiy measures is done just so the flying public THINKS it's safer. It is no safer then before 9-11, if not less." I also get asked if I am scared of a terrorist on my plane. I just say that "after 9-11, the flight crew's greatest ally in the sky is not an air marshall, not our training, but the other passangers. People have seen what can be and WAS done on 9-11. They don't want that to happen again, and if someone starts acting really odd or whatnot, the passangers take notice, and a lot of times, action."

I've been trolling the boards for quite some time, but felt that this time I had to speak up. I take real issue with your obvious dislike of the security measures currently in place. Why oh why would you, a flight attendant employed with a private, profit driven company, tell a paying customer/passenger that "The new 'securtiy' measures in place after 9-11 do not make flying any safer. All the hype over new securtiy measures is done just so the flying public THINKS it's safer. It is no safer then before 9-11, if not less." Your job as a flight attendant is to serve your passenger/customers, not stand on a soapbox and preach your personal views on travel security. I don't pay for your opinions, and neither does anyone else. I see many posters on this site that are so upset with the new security measures that they cannot see straight. The reality is simple and straight forward. TSA is here and it is not going away. Even if, and that's a pretty big if, privatized screeners are brought back in, the TSA still runs the show. The names and faces change, but the policies remain. Now I for one embrace our bill of rights and constitution just as much as the next person, and I am watching what is going on. However, my hipster days of non-pacifist activism are far over. If the gov't wants to screen me, then screen me. If they want to look through my bags, then by all means look. All I ask is that they be courteous and fair. So far, that's the only treatment I have received. Now I am expecting to be flamed quite extensively for not towing the "Frequent Flier" line by some of the characters on this board, but my opinion is just as valid as anyone elses. Gain some balance folks, there are far greater troubles in this world other than being screened at the gate. I leave you with the words of President Thomas Jefferson: "Delay is preferable to error." (May 16, 1792)

I go through the same lines as all of you and get searched. I wait in line actually observing what's going on and if I see people "standing around" I question that also. I hate worse having to pay taxes out of my check for the past 24 years (22 military).The real joke is that the airlines are still screwing the public with the bailout money they receive from the government and actually I see the taxes spent on the TSA as going back into the economy. You want to b1tch about taxes better see the whole picture where your money is going.